The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-06-04
An Historic Highway.

Superintendent of the old National
pike, learned many facts about that
famous highway which were never
in print.-The old National pike. Mr..
Starlight told me, was first heard of
in a bill introduced by Henry Clay
in Congress.-The pike was original.
ly called "The Cumberland Road"
and was intended as an extension of
the McAdamized road that original
Iy ran from Baltimore to CumbeR
land, a distance of ZOO miles. The
pike was to prolong this road from
Cumberland to Wheeling, Virginia,
a distance of 100 miles. But after
building It as far as Wheeling it was
found to be such channel of trade
and travel that it was gradually ex-
tended westward until it touched the
confines of Indiana. Here the rail-
roads overlook it and it was never
continued farther.
The pike was in active operation
up to the fifties, and even later, but
the railroads coming over the noun
tains took the major part of the
freight and passenger traffic. and
travel over it has dwindled down to
such small proportions that one
might traverse it its entire length
and not meet as many single teams
as in the old days he would have met
thousands. The road is becoming
covered with grass and growths of
shrubbery, and it is not more than
half its original width. All that re-
mains to tell of its halcyon days are
the deserted road houses, the decay
ing culverts and the imperishable
iron milestones.
The pike the whole length is con-
tinuation of hills. 1t is continual
descent from the top of one hill or a
continual ascent to the top of anoth'
err. Indeed, it is related of the orig
inal engineer that all he did was to
point his telescope from the top of
one hill to the top of another. An
able authority Oh roads once said
that the pike could have been made
as level as trotting park for the en-
tire distance, and but seven miles
would have been added to the length.
In the old days when coach travel
was the only means of transport on
land many famous men passed over
the old pike. Once the coach which
was carrying Henry Clay to Wash
ington was tipped over on a pile of
broken limestone near Uniontown,
unfortunately no one was injured
except the driver, whose nose was
broken. Mr.. Clay on being drawn
out of the wreck facetiously remark
ed that this was mixing the Clay OF
Kentucky with the limestone OF
Pennsylvania. Besides Clay, An
drew Jackson, Harrison, Sam Hous-
ton, Taylor. Polk, Crittenden, Shell.
by, Scott, Butler and many other
great men were frequent travellers
over the pike.
There was famous doctor Brad
dee] who lived, l think, in the thir-
ties or forties, when the mails were
being Systematically robbed. Strict
xr,afob x1,oo ;oofitntad opd of Ioprt h
it was discovered that when certain
drivers passed this DOCTORS house at
nightfall they dropped mail sack.
which the doctor carried into the
house. Whatever there was of mon
ey or value in it was picked up and
the rest of the papers and letters bur-
led. The doctor was arrested, and
on searching his house dozens OF
mail sacks were found buried in his
cellar, as the thieying had been going
on for years. His arrest caused great
excitement in Fayette county. He
was thrown into Jail at Uniontown
and afterwards taken across the coun-
try to Brownsville and from there on
a river packet to Pittsburgh, when
he.w tried and convicted.
AS many as 90 four-horse coaches.
loaded with passengers and mails.
passed given point on the road in
the course of a day, and sometimes
even larger number. About one
hundred six-horse trucking teams
was the average number that passed
a given point per day. The average
number of tayerns upon the pike was
one for every mile.
The pike originally cost about 49,.
600 a mile. but the cost of keeping it
in repair fully quadrupled this sum.
George w. Cass took charge of this
road, as its chief engineer. Mr.. Cass
afterward settled in Brownsville and
married a sister of Hon. John l.,
Dawson. After his wife's death Mr..
Cass married a second sister of Mr..
Dawson. He and his second wife
are now living in New York city.
Formerly there was one famous
driver on the pike whose only fault
was that he would look upon the
wine when it was reddest. He got